Businessman, public figure,member of the Council for interethnic relations under the President of the Russian Federation, president of the Federal national-cultural autonomy of the Greeks of Russia,chairman of the Board of Directors of LLC «GROUP AGROCOM».

Ivan Savvidi Stated that the Volume of Counterfeit Cigarettes Has Grown in the Rostov Region.

Specialists of the company «Donskoy Tabak» who monitored the tobacco market fixed the surge of messages about counterfeit tobacco products in wholesale and retail chains of the Rostov Region. According to Ivan Savvidi, president of the Board of Directors of «Agrocom group» struggle against counterfeit tobacco production could yield to the local budget about 360 million rubles. Businessman said that there are intrinsic reasons that resulted in the growth of the volume of counterfeit products- excise policy tightening, crisis in economy, decline in purchasing power and other factors. «Share of illegal production has grown up to 10% over the last years. Expansion of the counterfeit tobacco products not only damages company’s morale but also affects the dynamic of sales of original production, and brings down expected tax incomes to the local budget. »- emphasized Mr. Savvidi. Alexander Grebenschikov, Vice-Governor of the Rostov Region engaged the specialists of the company «Donskoy tabak» to prepare a report concerning illegal market of tobacco goods in the Rostov Region and deliver a message at the nearest meeting of the commission to counter illegal trafficking of industrial production.